Inside Out
by Navona
Summary: “Sarah Jane Smith.” Sarah extends a hand. “We’ve met. You don’t remember, of course.” Sarah Jane/Donna


**Title: **Inside Out**  
Author: **jelly_belly99**  
Recipient: **ellisbelle**  
Fandom: **Doctor Who/Sarah Jane adventures**  
Rating: **PG**  
Pairing: **Sarah Jane/Donna**  
Word Count: **2146**  
Warnings: **None**  
Summary: **"Sarah Jane Smith." Sarah extends a hand. "We've met. You don't remember, of course."

Sarah Jane finds her unexpectedly.

She's walking along the street, idly wondering if a Sonic Drink Bottle for Luke can be claimed as tax deductible, when she sees a familiar head of red hair in front of her.

Sarah stares for a minute, completely taken aback, and then jogs to catch up.

"Donna!" she calls. "Donna Noble!" But Donna has already vanished into the crowd.

II

She can't stop thinking about it though, because Donna is supposed to be traveling with the Doctor in a far away galaxy and a far away time. Had Donna been abandoned, Sarah wondered, in the same way that she herself had so many years ago?

Sarah makes enquiries, finds Donna working at the Information Desk of a London bank. She only goes for a glimpse of Donna, just to make sure that she's alright, but Donna looks different to how Sarah remembers her; older and more tired, and her eyes don't gleam the way they used to in the TARDIS.

Sarah finds herself going back the next day. And the one after that.

She has no intention of approaching, she merely watches with an unidentified feeling at the pit of her stomach, but matters are taken out of her hands when she doesn't hide herself as well in the crowd as she could have, and Donna's eyes, when she looks up, meet her own.

Sarah Jane smiles quickly, trying not to panic, and approaches.

"Donna?" she says. "Donna Noble?"

Donna looks at her, eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Yeah?" she says.

"Well, look at you," Sarah says, smiling. "Back at work. Life got a bit too exciting, hey?"

Donna's eyes flash, and she stands. "Excuse me," she says angrily. "I happen to like working here. And what right have you got to tell me I shouldn't?"

Sarah blinks. "Donna – I -,"

"Do I know you?" Donna cuts her off loudly. "Because you don't look like my mother, but you sure as hell sound like her."

Sarah can only stare, bewildered. "Donna – it's me. Sarah Jane. Donna, don't you recognize me?"

Donna looks her over, her eyebrows raised, jaw stuck out. "Should I?"

Sarah hesitates. "You – you are Donna Noble?" The question is ridiculous; Sarah would recognize Donna anywhere, still it seems it needs to be asked.

"Yeah," Donna says, eyes still narrowed in suspicion. "You from HR?"

"No I -," Sarah shakes her head. "Donna, I was there. With the Doctor, on the TARDIS. Defeating the Daleks. Don't you remember?"

Donna pauses just a moment. "Are you balmy or what?" she demands. "Defeating the what? Doctor who?"

Sarah swallows. "I think I must have made a mistake," she says. She turns, starting to walk away.

"You're bloody right, you made a mistake," Donna calls after her. Sarah turns back as she reaches the door. Donna's sitting back down, looking through a file. She's grumbling to herself. Sarah hesitates a second, and walks out the door.

II

Perhaps she'd come across a Donna who'd not yet met the Doctor, Sarah muses as she leaves. After all, the Doctor had never said what year Donna came from originally. He could have picked her up anywhere. No wonder she'd had no idea what Sarah was talking about.

Still, it didn't seem right. She was almost sure Donna had made some reference or other to coming from the same time as Sarah. In any case, she'd looked older, not younger.

Sarah makes a mental note never to say that to Donna if she ever meets her again.

She goes to a pub across the road from the bank and sits down at a table with a glass of vodka and soda, wondering what to do. If Donna is back here in London with no memory of the Doctor, something is wrong.

And then Donna is _here_, actually, literally _here_, in the pub, standing at the bar ordering a drink, and Sarah can't help staring. She means to duck her head when Donna looks around, but she's too surprised, and Donna's eyes land directly on hers. Sarah looks away quickly, but it's too late.

Donna waits to collect her drink and then marches over to Sarah, head held high.

"Are you following me?" she demands, putting her drink down on the table.

Sarah swallows. "Yes," she says honestly.

Donna's eyes narrow. "Why?"

"Because I thought," Sarah says calmly, her fingers clenched under the table to try and hide how fast her heart is beating. "That you might be interested in – in aliens."

Donna stares at her for a full minute, and then takes a step backward, shaking her head.

"You're barking, you are," she says. "Really mental." But there's a kind of reverence in her tone.

"Didn't you almost get married once?" Sarah asks, keeping her voice as smooth as she can manage. Donna steps back again, shock written all over her features.

"How'd you -,"

"What happened to your fiancé, Donna?"

Donna's mouth works soundlessly. "He – he buggered off," she says after a minute. "Couldn't face the thought of getting married. Typical man."

"Are you sure?" Sarah asks. She's treading on dangerous ground, and she knows it; she can't stop her hands from shaking. "Are you sure that's all he was? Just a man?"

Donna flinches, and looks at Sarah with something like fear. "Who _are_ you?" she asks.

"Sarah Jane Smith." Sarah extends a hand. "We've met. You don't remember, of course."

"What?" Donna says, not taking Sarah's hand. "Because of some alien memory powder or something?" She is mocking Sarah, but there's a hint of understanding in her eyes.

"Maybe," Sarah shrugs. "I don't know. Last time I saw you, you were traveling the Universe with the Doctor."

"Traveling the Universe? Me?" Donna laughs, a little shakily. "I've barely been out of London in my life."

Sarah hesitates. "Why don't you sit down?" she suggests. "We can talk."

"Oh, no." Donna backs up again. "If I wanted to talk to a nutter, I'd be at home with my mum."

Sarah bites her lip. "I'll buy you a drink," she offers. Donna eyes her.

"Fine," she says, pulling out the chair opposite Sarah and collapsing into it. "But it better be a good one."

Sarah smiles. She pushes the drink Donna had left on the table toward her, and Donna takes it, still glaring.

"So what about you then?" she asks. "You been traveling with this 'Doctor'?"

"A long time ago," Sarah says, and fiddles with her own drink. "I – I do my own work now. Investigating rumours of aliens."

Donna's eyebrows raise. "I'm sorry, you 'investigate rumours of aliens,'" she repeats, a little incredulously.

"That's right." Sarah nods.

Donna sits up straighter.

"Can I come?"

II

"So this 'Doctor,'" Donna says several days later, sitting opposite Sarah at a cafe and accepting a cup of tea from a sullen looking waitress. "What is he again?"

"He's a Time Lord," Sarah says patiently. They've been over this several times already, but she gets the feeling that Donna still hasn't quite accepted it. "Part of an alien race that travels through time and space."

"Right." Donna nods and sips her tea. "And you traveled with him."

"Yes."

"And so did I."

"Yes."

"Right." Donna frowns. "And how old is he, again?"

Sarah pauses. "I don't know. I don't remember."

Donna snorts. "That alien memory powder again?"

Sarah laughs. "Maybe."

"Just like a man," Donna says. "Happy to go around with a woman but won't tell her how old he really is." She shakes her head. "Bit dodgy, hey?"

Sarah sips her tea, and winces. "God, the tea here really is awful," she half splutters. "Could really use some… flavour."

"There some sort of alien powder for that, too?" Donna asks.

Sarah smiles. "Probably."

"So." Donna puts down her mug and fixes her with a stare. "When are we going to find ourselves ET?"

II

"Remind me again what a Flabon is," Donna mutters as they step cautiously through the shadows of the hallway. "And why we need to track it?"

"It's a pony-sized killing machine," Sarah whispers back. "And if we don't find it and get it out of here the whole city is going to get fried."

"Right." Donna nods, her fingers tight on the Sonic Compact Sarah has given her. "And we have no way of finding it except to creep along corridors and hope it doesn't come up and kill us from behind?"

Sarah stops creeping to glare at her. "Do you have a better idea?"

"Well," Donna mutters almost sulkily. "We could use some alien powder right about now."

Sarah reaches out and grabs Donna's hand, lacing their fingers the way the Doctor used to do for her when she was frightened.

"Come on."

They've almost made a complete tour of the building when they find it, skulking in a conference room. Sarah shines her torch on it and then they dive out of the way as it charges at them on all fours, the spikes on what appears to be its head aiming directly for them. Sarah pulls Donna behind the nearest door and slams it shut, and then they stand, pressed together uncomfortably in the tiny supply closet.

"Alright," Sarah says, her voice loud in the darkness. "I'll open the door, blast it with my Sonic Lipstick while you run, and then you can do the same thing for me and we'll shut it in here and decide what to do.

She reaches for the door, and then she's startled when Donna says, "No!"

Sarah turns back. "What?"

"Hang on," Donna says. "If I can just adjust the setting on the Sonic Compact…" She fiddles frantically with the buttons on the side. "Aha!" She holds it up to Sarah. "Rewired the central controls. If we use this on the Flabon, the Sonic waves will translate to a maximum frequency, penetrating the spatial barrier and should be able to send the Flabon back to it's own planet!" She grins. "Fantastic!"

She flings open the door of the supply closet, and aims her Compact at the Flabon. The blue light hits it straight between its four eyes, and it rears backwards, and then disintegrates before their eyes.

"There." Donna turns to grin at Sarah. "Taken care of."

Sarah is staring, breathless.

"How did you know to do that?" she asks finally.

"Clever, that's me," Donna says almost automatically, and then she frowns suddenly, as if she's surprised. "I don't know," she says. "I don't know how I knew that." She seems almost afraid.

"It's alright," Sarah says comfortingly. "It'll be leftover knowledge from the Doctor. He does things like that, you know."

Donna offers her a weak grin.

"Alien powder?" she tries.

"Yeah." Sarah nods. "Come on. Let's get you home."

II

They go back to Sarah's place instead, because Donna doesn't want to deal with her mother, and Luke's at a friend's, so Sarah's alone.

"It was like," Donna says, "the knowledge was just _there_. Out of nowhere, I just _knew_. And now it's gone again."

She's sitting on Sarah's couch, wrapped in a blanket and holding a mug of tea. "And I don't know _why_," she continues. She looks at Sarah, somewhat imploringly. "How can a person know something one minute, and not know it the next?"

Sarah bites her lip and sits down next to Donna, taking her hand and weaving their fingers together.

"Donna," she says gently. "Maybe whatever happened to you, with the Doctor – maybe you're not supposed to know. Maybe that's why you're here, instead of with him. Maybe this is how it's meant to be."

For once, Donna says nothing. Then she looks up at Sarah.

"I don't think that what I want my life to be," she says, her fingers tightening on Sarah's. "Running from aliens, and never knowing if I'll remember the things I need to."

They sit in silence for a minute.

"Well," Donna sighs. "I should get home. My mother will be wondering where I am." She chuckles ruefully. "She still treats me like I'm twelve years old."

Sarah follows her to the door. She still hasn't released her hand.

"Well," Donna says. "It's been fun."

"That it has," Sarah chuckles. "Goodbye, Donna."

She goes to hug the other woman, her arms wrapping tightly around her, but somehow Donna's lips find their way onto hers. Sarah freezes for just a minute, and then she kisses back, a little tentatively, finding she wants more.

"This is what I want," Donna says into her ear, making her shiver, and she leads Sarah back toward the couch, pulling her down to sit next to her.

"Is this ok?" Donna asks, breaking away as their kisses grow in fervor.

"Blame it on the alien powder," Sarah whispers, and then Donna's lips are back on hers, and she finds she doesn't need to think at all.


End file.
